Sunday 4 January 2015

Carroll on a permanent deal looking more and more a good idea

Spurs youngster currently on loan in SA1 has looked more and more assured in a Swans shirt, and if talk of a permanent move is true it would be a great investment



When Tom Carroll signed on loan for the Swans he said the move was too good to turn down, but he's had to be patient as first-team opportunities have been somewhat limited until recently. He had to wait until the eighth league fixture of the campaign for his first Premiership start (away at Stoke), though he did play in the League Cup matches against Rotherham & Everton before then, but after a slightly unassuming start he's settled and is currently looking a very good player indeed.

Since that first league start he's featured more regularly. making another three starts in the league as well as featuring in cup matches against Liverpool and Tranmere, and the more he plays the more he fits the way we operate. At first I couldn't help but wonder whether Carroll could be a long term replacement for Leon Britton, but the more I see him the more I think he's more akin to a Joe Allen type player - someone who can move up the field with possession at pace, giving and receiving passes in close quarters.

He's now made four starts in the league with a further five appearances from the bench, as well as his four cup starts, and he's said himself he's looking to get more game-time in the near future:

"I've been waiting a while for my goal and I got it today, so I'm delighted. When you get the opportunity you've got to take it and hopefully I've done that today and showed the manager what I can do. 
"That's where you get your confidence as well, getting that two, three, four games that you need to get into the flow. I've come here to play Premiership football, so I'd like to be playing in the next couple of games. 
"When the opportunity came to join Swansea it was something I always wanted to do, to come here and play this style of football is great. We put on a good performance throughout the whole pitch, we played well and just had that little bit of quality in the final third to get the goals. 
"We've got some good midfielders here... Leon is a legend and just training with him every day is a great experience. He's a great player and barely gives the ball away, I'd say I'm slightly different to Leon that maybe I like to get forward a bit more, but he's someone I look up to."

With plenty of games coming up and both Ki & Shelvey unavailable, it's almost certain Carroll will partner Sigurdsson & Leon in midfield in the next outing. As Monk has so often said, any player that comes into the team and does well will keep his place on merit, and if he kicks on again as a result of increased game-time picking a first-choice midfield trio really will be a tough call when all of our midfielders are once again available. With that in mind, how do they compare?

So far this season Carroll has averaged a pass completion rate of 88.7% - of players who've played a decent amount of games only Ki (89.9%), Leon (90.1%). & Jordi Amat (92%) have posted higher numbers, Defensively too he shines, making 2.2 tackles a game - when compared to other central midfielders it's only Leon who makes more, with 2.7 per game (Jonjo & Ki both average 1.7) - but he does make less interceptions (1.2) per game than Jonjo (1.7), Leon (2.2) and Ki (2.6).

Interestingly, he makes the same amount of blocks on shots as Leon (0.7) per game, which is quite a bit higher than either Ki or Jonjo (2.2), while he attempts dribbles less often than any player outside our defence - 0.5 per game. I don't know about anyone else, but that implies discipline to me.

Is talk of us wanting him on a permanent deal true? Frankly, I'm struggling to think of reasons it wouldn't be! He's young, British, obviously suits the way we play, and all of the snippets we've seen in the press seem to indicate he's very much enjoying being here. Granted, he's not going to want to sit on the bench every week, but I'd currently prefer him to Shelvey and I'd say if we had four central midfielders for three positions they'd all get ample game time.

The main question would be how much he's valued at. Spurs' Chairman Daniel Levy is a notoriously shrewd negotiator, and if selling to another Premier League club it's understandable he'd look to get the best deal possible. On top of that, he's probably not too pleased with how the Sigurdsson/Vorm/Davies deal has apparently worked out so far, though whether he'd allow that to affect transfer negotiations is doubtful. If we could get Carroll for £5million or less, it would be a great piece of business, but anything above that and I'm not sure the Swans would be interested.

Whether that price is anywhere near Spurs' valuation I can't say, but I have a feeling we'll be finding out.